Lot 279: MÖLLHAUSEN, HEINRICH BALDUIN. 1825-1905. Tagebuch einer Reise vom Mississippi nach den Küsten der Südsee. Leipzig: Hermann Mendelssohn, 1858.

Tagebuch einer Reise vom Mississippi nach den Küsten der Südsee. Leipzig: Hermann Mendelssohn, 1858.
2 parts in 2 volumes. [2], viii, 222; [4], xiv, [2], [223]-494, [2] pp. Introduction by Alexander von Humboldt. Two title-pages. Half-title in vol 2. Engraved title vignette of the Colorado River after Möllhausen; 7 chromolithographed plates mounted on card and 6 tinted lithographed plates after Möllhausen; folding map after Henry Lange, 10 wood-engravings in text. 4to (320 x 252 mm). Uncut and unopened in original blue-grey printed wrappers. Custom blue clamshell cloth box. Foxing to titles, occasional pale foxing within intruding into several images, backstrips renewed in facsimile and corners of wrappers repaired, final text leaf strengthened at edges.

FIRST EDITION, UNCUT IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS. The Streeter-Snider copy is the only other copy in original wrappers that we can locate in the auction records for the past century. This copy (like Streeter's) has the "interim" title-page in vol 1 which was meant to be replaced by the half-title, title and preliminaries present in vol 2 when the book was bound in publisher's blue gilt-pictorial cloth.
Möllhausen, a Berlin-born artist, first visited the American frontier in 1847-1852. Back in Germany he secured the recommendation of Alexander von Humboldt for the post of artist and topographer with Lt. A.W. Whipple's Pacific Railroad expedition, scouting possible transcontinental railroad routes at the 35th parallel. Their route was the third of four potential routes proposed by then Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis. They traveled through central New Mexico and Arizona to the Colorado River, then across the Mojave Desert to California, reaching the coast at San Pedro. The lithographs are justly famous for their beauty. With the accompanying notes, they provide a valuable record of the Pueblo Indians. "In addition to the account in journal form of his experiences as topographer of Whipple's surveying expedition ... there is an account of his experiences in the West in 1851 on a trip from St. Louis to Laramie... " (Streeter). Graff 2851; Howes M713 ("b"); Sabin 49914; Streeter sale 3135; R. Taft "The Pictorial Record of the Old West: Heinrich Balduin Möllhausen" in Kansas Historical Quarterly, August 1948, vol 16, no 3; Wagner-Camp 305:1; Wheat Transmississippi West 955.
Provenance: ex-libris of Dr. Otto L. Schmidt [1863-1935], President of the Illinois State Historical Society.
Acquisition: Christie's New York, May 22, 2001, lot 268, $6,462.